Sudden Outbursts
by Sami-Fire
Summary: Aster receives some upsetting news, and Richter has to handle the aftermath. Contains slightly "less" subtle than usual Richter/Aster.


Author's Notes:

I found myself craving some cheap Richter/Aster, so I made some. But then it ended up not being so cheap after all! How nice! …NOT. I hate this story right now (that may be just because I think differently when it's late, though). If I liked this story, it would have been posted much sooner. It's making me cringe just thinking about it. Argh. I don't even know why I'm submitting this. I'm just fishing for feedback, I guess. Or something.

Yeah, it's a little more of the same, but you'll notice something very different: third person narrative! It's a bit of an experiment, really. That part turned out well, but the rest of the story… bleugh. It gets _way_too melodramatic at times. I tried to wring most of it out, but I don't think I succeeded. And I didn't know how to end the story, so that last gag goes on way too long… how disappointing. I apologize in advance for how bad it is, but I just really wanted to get this thing DONE already. I think I need to just make some "normal" Richter/Aster- no role reversals, no overly dramatic outbursts, just a talk between two close friends with maybe a little bit of Ho Yay thrown in depending on how I feel that day- to wash this garbage down.

I've got some Richter/Emil coming up for fans of the more popular pairing. Unfortunately, that story doesn't seem to be turning out much better than this one… In fact, it may be worse. I probably shouldn't count my chickens before they hatch, but I don't like that one right now either.

In this story, Aster is fourteen and Richter is sixteen.

As always, reviews are very much welcome (especially if you can tell me exactly what I did right or wrong and how I can patch up the mistakes. I need to know if I just think this is bad or if this really is a piece of tripe).

* * *

The day was already off to a really bad start. Aster refused to wake up again, despite not appearing sick or otherwise troubled. "Five more minutes," he mumbled, and pulled the covers over his head.

Richter, who had been up for at least a good half-hour longer than Aster, was getting tired of all the effort he had to put into getting Aster to get out of bed. Normally it wasn't an easy task, but today it was especially difficult. Richter growled in reply, "You said 'five more minutes' fifteen minutes ago! We're going to be late if you keep this up."

"I don't care." This level of grouchiness was very unusual for Aster, even in the morning. He had some trouble with a project the night before and ended up losing quite a bit of sleep, but this was far from the first time that that sort of thing happened. In fact, that happened quite often recently, but he never got this cranky over it.

"Stop that. Get up." Richter tended to go straight to barking at his friend on the rare occasions that he behaved like this.

"Fine." Aster was barking now, too. Maybe Richter was starting to rub off on him.

The boys didn't speak to each other for the rest of the morning. A cloud of silence seemed to hang over them, a fog that put a kind of curtain between them. The others in the cafeteria- even including certain individuals that regularly flicked cornflakes at Richter during breakfast and continued to throw various other things at him throughout the day- noticed that the two of them were being unusually cold with each other. For the rest of the school day, there was a quiet agreement among the students that neither of them were to be messed with that day. Richter actually went a full class period without getting a paper ball chucked at the back of his head. Of course, the paper-throwers were at it again the very next class period, but there was still some sort of record set that day for the least amount of paper balls thrown at a half-elf in Sybak.

If Richter set that record, Aster set another record: this had to have been the least amount of people he had interacted with in a day. Everyone avoided him and the cloud that was trailing behind him. There were a few quiet murmurs about "imitating that half-elf," but a glare from Aster (another first) quickly shut them up.

The silence persisted till some time after dinner. Richter had begun feeling that all this tension was directed at him. Aster was his normal, cheerful self until yesterday night. He tried to think of what he could have done to get on Aster's bad side. What could he have said that put Aster this off balance? He took a deep breath, muttered everyone's favorite mantra- _Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality_- and broke the silence.

"We need to talk."

Aster looked up from his work, but not directly at Richter. His grip tightened on the pencil in his hand. Maybe he could snap the pencil for dramatic effect if he tensed up enough. …Nope, it wasn't going to happen. At any rate, Aster remained quiet.

The look in Aster's eyes- unfocused, yet somehow like a glare at the same time- unnerved Richter, but he convinced himself to try again. "What's going on with you today? You're never in this bad a mood for this long." Still nothing. This time he pulled out one stock phrase that everyone seemed to throw at a troubled person. "I'm concerned about you, Aster." It was so trite that it couldn't possibly pull anything out of Aster.

But it did. Aster's first word was soft, even a little shaky. "…Really?"

"Of course! Why do you think I wouldn't be concerned about you acting like this? This isn't like you at all. You're almost acting like me."

Aster slowly stood up, every part of his body completely tense. "D-do you… do you really want to know what's bothering me?"

Richter recognized the look in Aster's eyes as fear. Fear of what? There was only one way to find out. "Yes. Anything's better than you bottling things up like this. You always tell me to tell you how I feel, so why don't you tell me what's wrong?" _And besides, you're scary when you're trying to hold back something really negative,_ Richter added in his mind.

Aster drew in a deep breath. Richter noticed that he was trembling now. "This." Aster picked up a scrap of paper. "_This_ is the problem."

"…A piece of paper?" Well, it couldn't be just a piece of paper. There was nothing to react to on a blank sheet.

"I-it's a letter from my parents…" A tear rolled down Aster's cheek. Richter thought, _What happened? Did someone die, or get sick? What could be doing this to him? _"I'll read the part that's bothering me the most. 'We've heard a lot of things about your roommate, and other people aren't painting a very flattering picture of him. We're just still worried that he might be a bad influence on you. We know you're going to disagree with us again when you write back, but we've agreed that it might not be safe for you to stay there with him. With the way half-elves use magic, staying with him could even be dangerous. Especially if he is as-" Aster choked up with a sob. He collapsed back down into his chair with another sob, and then finally melted down into a full-on crying fit. He crumpled the letter in his hand as he spoke. "Th-they… they want to take me out of here… they want to take me out of here because of YOU!" The sobbing intensified, and Richter was at a loss for words. So, Aster's parents thought the same way as everyone else did… Where did his ideology come from, then?

The terrible outburst continued. "Listen to them, judging you off of hearsay and stereotypes! I mean, the problem isn't that they disagree, but that they just judge you like that! It's not fair! And they do this in every other letter. I get it! They hate you, Richter, and they don't get why I like you! They think you're some kind of cretin, maybe even some kind of predator! Maybe even an _animal!_ Why won't they at least listen to me when I say you're not a bad guy? And it's not just them… it's everyone else, too! I get funny looks from the teachers just because I hang out with you! The _teachers!_" He was practically shouting this time. In fact, he was loud enough for someone to hear; soon there was a knock on the door.

"Aster, are you alright in there?"

Aster froze, apparently just realizing how big a fit he was throwing. He coughed out a rather hoarse "…Excuse me," and went to check the door. He swiftly assured the visitor that he was just fine, and that no, nothing was wrong with the half-elf either. After that, he politely (but rather firmly) told the trespasser to go away. Aster walked back to his chair, plunking himself back down and slumping a bit, head facing the floor. He spoke to Richter through sniffles, this time more quietly to avoid another busybody stopping by. "It's not right… I know I can't just make people agree with me, but they just shouldn't make all those judgments like that. Not against you, or me, or anyone." He took a deep breath and looked up. "I'm not making sense any more, am I?" The distressed boy folded up, pulling his knees to his chest and avoiding eye contact. "I-I'm sorry, Richter… I'm so sorry…"

"What are you sorry for? You didn't do anything." Richter tried his hardest to be strong, but it takes two people to hurt someone: one person to say something hurtful, and then another person to relay what that first person said. The words crawled through his head, settling in sensitive parts of his mind: _Cretin. Predator. Animal._ Just because he'd been described in derogatory terms his whole life didn't mean that said terms didn't still hurt. Aster's sudden explosion also didn't help. It was definitely not the first time Mt. Aster erupted, but he always threw Richter off when it did happen. The sudden switches from Aster's normally rather sunny disposition to his rare but extreme tantrums overwhelmed Richter.

Aster sniffled again and finally made actual eye contact with Richter. "It hurts, doesn't it, Richter? All those things I just said… other people might have said them, but they still hurt, don't they?"

Richter couldn't hold his stoic façade any longer. "…Yes." He could feel tears coming to his own eyes. It wasn't really so much the words as it was the intensity of Aster's outburst that unnerved him. Really, who wouldn't be shaken by such an abrupt and extreme transition? "But maybe, if they're all saying things like that, there's some sort of truth to what they say." It was the one belief that the abuse had pounded into him, and it never completely dissolved, no matter how hard Aster tried to exorcise it from him.

That seemed to bring Aster back to his senses. He wiped away his tears with his sleeve. "That's not true at all, Richter, and you know it. Don't let them beat you down like that." Then he had an idea. "Come here. Why don't we try squeezing the tension out? Like… this!" Before Richter could react, Aster had him in one of his familiar buddy hugs, but closer and tighter. This time, however, Richter didn't stiffen up when first grabbed. He actually reciprocated the hug right away. He was too exhausted from weathering the assault to resist.

They stood there in that close embrace… Aster could feel Richter's hot breaths on his skin. He tried to breathe Richter in, so to speak. Richter always smelled good, sometimes even soothing, to Aster. It might have been the familiarity that created the soothing effect. But this time, his scent was... different, somehow. It seemed inexplicably stronger, but not necessarily more intense. Aster just chalked it up to a powerful desire for his friend's support that enhanced everything about him. It couldn't possibly be love, could it? ...Well, maybe so, but not in THAT way. That would be taking it way too far.

Richter held Aster tight, then tighter. He wasn't quite used to using his friend as a living stressball (normally it was Aster that did that to him), but tried it anyway just to see how it felt. Aster was always warm when Richter felt cold, and he was never without a kind word to say, a friendly pat on the shoulder... or a hug. Richter tried to work out why Aster always gave him such tight, close hugs (and why this one was even more of both adjectives than usual), but then decided he didn't actually mind. It always felt good, so why complain about it? Especially now. It felt a bit different from usual, but not in any easily describable way. He could feel blood rushing to his face. What was there to be ashamed or embarrassed about? It was just him and Aster in the room, and this was far from the first time that something like this had happened. But there was a more pressing matter on Richter's mind...

"Hey… Aster?" No response. "Aster?" …Third time's a charm? "Aster!" Nope, nothing. "Aster… You're suffocating me! Cut that out!"

Finally, a response. "…Huh? Sorry." He didn't quite let go, but loosened his grip enough for Richter to breathe. He seemed to be back to his normal self, finally capable of speaking and acting coherently. "I'm better now, Richter. I guess it just kinda disturbed me that my parents were still going on like that, even after all this time. All of this could have been avoided, couldn't it?"

"Maybe if you actually told me what was going on instead of letting everything stew in your head all day…" Richter tried to pull back a little, but Aster was still wrapped around him. "No, seriously, let go."

"Too bad," Aster said, a mischievous little grin on his face. He released Richter anyway. "But... you're right. You know I've got a bad habit of holding things back because I don't want to stress out other people, too."

"Well, you end up stressing other people out anyway when you keep it in. You always say I'm a good listener, so why don't you tell me anything?"

"I'm sorry-"

"Stop apologizing and do it, then." He gave Aster a pat on the head.

"Well... I can start by saying that I feel better now. And you know how you said I was acting like you? Well, you were acting a bit like me today. Thanks, Richter."

"You're wel- wait, I really was acting like you?" That was true surprise in his voice, right there. To him, that was one of the highest compliments he could get.

"Yeah, really! Do you really think that you can't help people out of tough situations, too? Besides, we've gone through this before, haven't we?"

"You're probably right about that. But I'm just glad to see that you're back to normal. Just… talk to me if you think you're going to lose it like that again, okay?"

"Hey! You're even borrowing my verbal tic!"

"I think that's enough for today, Aster. Really. All this emotional back-and-forth is exhausting."

"But you do that kind of thing on a daily basis, sometimes even in between sentences!"

"Cut it out!"

"Like now!"

"No, seriously, CUT IT OUT! …At least you're yourself again. I wouldn't have you any other way."

"And I can say the same about you."


End file.
